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Saturday, January 29, 2011

I think too much. And I feel too much. The latter is a problem when watching and reading stuff. As exemplified by my reaction to finishing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) tv show just now. I cried, but not out of sadness, just a profound overwhelmingness. (this is a word! I just looked it up!) I’m gonna discuss spoiler type stuff here, so be warned. I have to discuss spoilers coz I have to discuss it all! This show was amazing. Joss Whedon-level amazing. I felt the same overwhelmingness (my new favourite word ;) after finishing Dollhouse. And definitely did not feel it with Battlestar. God, when I compare Battlestar to these two amazing shows, holy fuck does it suck! It wasn’t bad, but so... hmm... messy is the first and only word coming to mind. Messy story that let go of you too often. Didn’t keep you in and involved. Got too mean-spirited in moments for you to stay captivated. I doubt I’d say it was more realistic coz of that, coz TSCC was also gritty, also had human-looking machines that also felt and loved, but... hmm... this time I’m gonna use the word cohesive... that TSCC had a much more cohesive story line. Maybe coz TSCC’s existence wasn’t so stop-and-go with threats of cancellation all the time. (they just got canceled, no threats. :((( which really fucking sucks) Maybe coz the Terminator story lines have so much time-travel, and so many movie installments, that you have to be much more careful with how you write the story? My god, the Terminator stories has sooooo captivated me!! There’s not a single other movie series where I find myself constantly thinking back and referencing the previous movies. Which means every new movie or tv show I watch from that world, I review, and even relive a bit, the previous ones!! That might simply be coz with all that time travel the story line gets complex and you’re just trying to figure it out. But I feel it’s more than that... just a truly great, great story!!! Thank god there’s been so many movies and this tv show to explore it as much as we have!!!! :)))))

The ending... I was overwhelmed at seeing John reach the future, a point in the future before he’s the celebrated saviour of humanity. Where Derek and Kyle and Allison don’t know him yet, but he knows them. It especially felt overwhelming coz he lost them in his present... and god what a loss.... but here they are and he can be with them again. And it was overwhelming that Sarah chose to stay behind. But made sense. But how sad. :( And him jumping into the future to become the John Connor at age 16 makes a lot of sense. To lead, he has to be different, and this way one massive, huge way that he’s different is that he didn’t live through Judgment Day. And can retain hope and optimism and courage coz it wasn’t squashed by years of fighting and simply surviving. This obviously doesn't work with T3 but that movie can most gratefully ignored! ;) Although not a bad movie considering. Loved the female Terminator! The rest kinda sucked. And now I have to re-watch all of them and I’m looking forward to it!!! :))) I posted this on my Lady Knight Facebook page, but I’ll repeat it here, one of my most very fervent movie wishes is that if they make a 5th Terminator movie continuing the story of the 4th, that they pleeease not use Christian Bale for John Connor! When asked why I explained I am really sick of Christian Bale... he's just played his Psycho character in every role since! Emotionless and expressionless!!! More robot-like than the Terminator in the movie! And as a friend of mine put it: “Ya he's like Keanu Reeves without all the emotion.” !! Which cracked me up coz sooo accurate!! Hahahaha!! You know your acting sucks when it fails in a comparison to Keanu!! Haha!

So all round most amazing show!!! And I love all the actors and characters! Although I had misgivings about the tiny Summer Glau as a Terminator but she’s really good as an emotionless machine that is a bit more than the sum of its parts. And Lena Headey simply rocks and KICKS ASS!!!! And who would’ve thought someone from 90210 could act?! In a sci-fi no less?!?! Haha! Kudos to Brian Austin Green! :) And Shirley Manson!! Lead singer of Garbage was terrific!! Her first acting role and amazing! And wardrobe must’ve had her outfits designed! They were super unique and cool!

So this show was great, so was Dollhouse. One show I’d also say is objectively great was Rome. All three had cohesive, point-full, story lines which is what I think made them a million times better than something like Battlestar. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the show, but objectively don’t think it was as good as these. One thought is coz these three were all 2 seasons long only, and that it might be much harder to maintain a cohesive story line over more than 2 years? But no... Babylon 5 managed coz it had only J. Michael Straczynski writing it and he had a 5-season story arc in mind from the beginning which is a great way to do it. And Buffy and Angel stayed on track, although there were tons of filler episodes, but even those still advanced the characters which is as important. Signing off! Adios! :)

3
comments:

Anonymous
said...

In a way John is somewhat like Chronos, or "time" He lives his life backward so to speak. He knows Alison, Dereks, and Reise's futures because they are his past.

What I think particulary challenging for John as the leader, he will have to send these people back in time to die for him, so he can to exist, so she can be killed to be reborn as Cameron, and to die trying to save a liquid metals little girl. (oops spoiler alert.. sorry too late)

after watching so much AI development in this show, this article caused... hmm... a bit of a skin-tingling feeling!! we're there!? we're at the point the show was in terms of AI's?! well almost. not as far but! check out the post on Tor Books:http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/02/why-watson-on-jeopardy-is-ais-moon-landing-moment